Page 81 of Catfish

I break my stare from my phone and look over at my cousin. “He thinks I’m an idiot and don’t know that we’re the only candidate for his little campaign that he’s running.” I snicker. “Dumbass.”

“So...you think we’ll get the job?” My jaw twitches as I tamper down my cousin’s constant questions.

“We got the job, just waiting for the details and how many zeros are at the end of that paycheck.”

“It’s going to open up so much for us, soon we’ll have to hire more people to help because there’ll be too many events to plan with just the two of us and—” I place my hand on her thigh to get her to shut up.

We’ll hire people to help us over my dead body because I don’t trust anyone to run the shit I built yet. Plus, that’s a ways down the road still before we have to contemplate any of that.

“Sure,” I offer Sadie to appease her excitement. “I also took the job for Mayor Montgomery’s son. We have a meeting with him tomorrow.”

“That’s amazing. Should we—”

“You know what would look amazing?” I assert, trying to keep my voice light. “If you wore that adorable blush pink dress we bought last week.”

Sadie is silent for a moment, and I know why. The dress was not only a grand, but it practically squeezed her slim curves, leaving nothing to the imagination. Something she was super uncomfortable wearing, but the alternative was a peach-colored pants suit that she wanted to buy, which was business suicide.

“I could try it on again,” Sadie finally states. “I don’t think it’d be appropriate though.”

I perk a brow. “It’s inappropriate to look beautiful?” I let an easy chuckle fill the air between us. “Sadie, you are so beyond modest. You looked killer in that dress.”

“You always took after your cousin,” a male voice concurs, making both of us jump and knock shoulders into each other.

My God, no.

My cousin follows the sound of the intrusion while I sit perfectly still. The soft clacks of his perfectly polished loafers hit the hardwood floors of my office, ticking at each one of my nerves.

“Grant!” Sadie squeals, standing from the couch and skipping over to him out of my periphery.

She always loved him, he treated her like a little princess, bringing her back small gifts from every state he visited or if we went overseas on vacation.

If he was a decent, sane human being, I’d tell her to date him.

“You look fantastic,” Grant chants. “You’ve been doing well?”

“So good,” Sadie replies. “Business is going great. Reagan got us a few gigs with—”

“Oh, damn, Sadie, can you go call Mrs. Rubstein? I forgot to ask her what flavor cake her daughter wanted for her Sweet Sixteen. We need to order that cake ASAP.”

It's vanilla bean with cream cheese frosting, fresh strawberries, and a crown as a topper.

“Absolutely,” my cousin gushes. “I’ll be back.”

My office door closes, giving Grant the cue he needs to step deeper into my scope. Into a spot that I told him I didn’t want to ever see him in.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing. How I’d do anything to make sure nothing of mine is tampered with. My ex-fiancé thinks he knows me because I spent seven years with him.

He only saw what I wanted him to see.

“It’s funny how things never change,” Grant alludes, striding closer to me. “I still have to hunt you down when I want to speak with you.”

“What do you want?” I leer. “I think I remember telling you to fuck off.”

I don’t want to see his face to make this real. To confirm his being here in my life, in a minute of my reality right now.

I pried myself out of his grasp while making my brother worry about me instead of his own self.

I lied to Mama about how Grant and I drifted apart, and that's why I broke the engagement when actually it was because I couldn't stand being suffocated anymore.

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